!!!New Jerusalem Monastery

by members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

17 May 2010

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

In the 17th century, a little town located just 50 kilometers from
Moscow suddenly became a stronghold of the spiritual and geographical
revolution: it was supposed to become the new Holy Land of the
Christians, with an exact replica of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
its topography and relics. This is how the local hills gained their
names: Mount Zion, Mount Tabor, and the Mount of Olives. In addition,
the Istra River was renamed the Jordan River. These were the only
similarities to the Holy Land — the brutal Russian climate remained
unchanged, and the little settlement near Moscow named "New Jerusalem"
couldn't become the center of Orthodox Christianity.

The famous Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, an unusual person who, although
being greatly misunderstood by contemporaries, played a huge role in the
history of Russia. In fact, he was the author and initiator of the
already mentioned changes. Among Nikon's schismatic ideas were the
church reforms that permanently divided the country, giving rise to the
Old Believers movement.

Patriarch Nikon was actively involved not only in the religious but also
social life of the country, trying to interfere with government affairs.
Alas, he crossed the line in this sphere, just as he did with the
church. As a result, he was evicted from Moscow and then settled down in
New Jerusalem, placing the construction of the Resurrection Cathedral
under his personal supervision.

We have to give credit to the scale of the idea. The Resurrection
Cathedral was supposed to visually represent the leadership of Russia in
the world of Orthodox Christianity. The Patriarch ordered architects to
copy the Palestinian Cathedral and, at the same time, gave them room for
creativity. For example, there was the idea of building a temple with
365 chapels representing each day of the year! However, this particular
idea was turned down during the construction. Nevertheless, the
cathedral, decorated with hand-painted tiles and white-stone carvings,
turned out to be rather whimsical. The domes of the underground church
rose up from the ground level in front of the main section — the
Resurrection Cathedral was crowned with a mighty dome that rests on the
cross-shaped foundation; and further behind them, there was a huge
stone-tented roof over the Holy Sepulchre Chapel. The tent was so big
that the architects couldn't secure it well enough, and so in 1723 it
collapsed.

After the two fires that followed the first incident, the cathedral
underwent a major restoration, which was supervised by architect K.
Blank, who implemented the design from the famous Francesco Bartolomeo
Rastrelli. By the 20th century a number of additional structures
appeared in the monastery. However, in 1941 most of the buildings were
damaged due to the war, and many architectural monuments were completely
destroyed. Some of them were rebuilt, except for the main architectural
piece — the gigantic seven-tier belfry.

Today the New Jerusalem monastery shares a ground with the art museum
that is also located on its territory. The city of Istra (former
Voskresensk) has always been in the shadows, silently growing around the
monastery. Like the monastery, during World War II, the city was
occupied and then completely destroyed during the retreat of the enemy
troops. After the war, architect A. V. Schusev designed a master plan
that would turn the city of Istra into a large recreational center; but
industrial and scientific research fields began to develop here instead.
This is why, aside for the New Jerusalem Monastery, the main "landmarks"
of Istra are a baby food factory, furniture and textile factories, as
well as tile, brick, and other plants. This contrast of old and new is
depicted in our panoramas that were shot in the freezing (below 0°F!)
winter of 2009.

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[2 Panoramas of New_Jerusalem_Monastery|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/Panoramas_of_New_Jerusalem_Monastery]










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